Thank you. Any other Members that have questions? No further questions, please turn to page 20.
Legislative Assembly, statutory offices, operations expenditure summary, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, $4,221,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Members, please return now to the Legislative Assembly summary found on page 5, with information items on page 6 and 7. Are there any questions? Seeing none, no further questions, committee, I will now call the Legislative Assembly summary.
Legislative Assembly -- oh sorry, I didn't see your hand. I'm going to go back to the Member from the Deh Cho. Okay, thank you. Seeing no further questions, committee, I will now call the Legislative Assembly summary.
Legislative Assembly, operations expenditure, total department of 2024-2025 Main Estimates, $26,275,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
Mr. Chair, I move that this committee defer further consideration of the main estimates for the Legislative Assembly at this time. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. The motion is in order. To the motion.
Question.
Question has been called. All those in favour by show of hands. All those opposed, show of hands. Okay, the motion is carried. Consideration of the Legislative Assembly, operations expenditure of 2024-2025 Main Estimates, total Legislative Assembly, is deferred.
---Carried
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thank you to the witnesses for appearing before us. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses from the chambers.
Committee, we will now move on to the next department. What is the wish of the committee? Member of the Deh Cho.
(audio)
We now consider Tabled Document 93-20(1), 2024-2025 Main Estimates. We will now consider the Department of Environment and Climate Change. Does the Minister of Environment and Climate Change wish to bring witnesses into the House?
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, I do.
Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Sergeant-at-arms, please escort the witnesses into the Chamber.
Would the Minister please introduce his witnesses.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. On my right, I have Erin Kelly, deputy minister. And on my left, I have director of finance, Jessica St. Arnaud.
Thank you. Does committee agree to forego general comments on the Department of Environment and Climate Change?
Agreed.
Thank you. Seeing no more general comments, does the committee agree to proceed to the detail contained in the tabled document?
Agreed.
Committee, we will now defer the department summary and review the estimates by activity and summary briefing beginning with corporate management, starting on page 83 with information items on page 86. Are there any questions? I'm going to go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, the Minister of Finance, yesterday when I was asking her about evaluation capacity throughout the government, mentioned that the Department of ECC is working on building an evaluation capacity within the department. Can the Minister speak to that a bit, please. Thank you.
Thank you. I'm going to go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Mr. Chair, since the merger of the Department of Environment and Climate Change and the Department of Lands, the department has been working and have a couple of staff that are directly assigned to this task. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. And I just want to confirm, from what I heard yesterday, making sure it's applicable for the department, is the intent to evaluate one or two programs every fiscal? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Yes, the intent is to evaluate all of the programs over time. It's not necessarily specifically defined how many will be done annually. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Great Slave.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Nothing further right now.
Any further questions? Okay, thank you. No further questions, please turn to page 84.
Environment and Climate Change, corporate management, operations expenditure summary, 2024-2025 Main Estimates, $10,329,000. Does the committee agree?
Agreed.
Thank you. Moving on to the environmental management, monitoring and climate change, beginning on page 87 with information items on 91. Are there any questions? No further questions, please turn to page -- oh I'm sorry, my apologies. I'll go to the Member for Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So on page 89, under the item water research and monitoring (aquatic quality and hydrology), it looks like the budget has gone from, in 2022-2023, from $483,000 and then last year's budget $370,000, and now we're down to $346,000.
Can the department explain why the amount of money for water research and monitoring has been going down over the last two fiscal years? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister to the question.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. The decrease was a result of a one-time supp. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can the Minister give further clarity or information as to how these budgets are developed? I mean, it looks like contributions supporting academic research and monitoring. So do we just sort of wait until we hear from an academic institution as to what kind of research and monitoring they plan to do and then our budgets shift accordingly, or do we have a role in how these things are planned or making sure that we have priority projects that are being researched each year? Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. They are planned activities, and they are worked around engagement of different academics that show areas of interest. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Okay. Can the Minister give any examples of what kinds of water research and monitoring work is being done this year versus things that were being done last year?
Thank you. To the Minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. For that level of detail, I'll pass to deputy minister Kelly. Thank you.
Thank you. I'll go to the deputy minister.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. So the way the money is spent is dependent on what the activities are in a work plan, and we engage with experts depending on what the needs are for that particular work plan. That's why the budget fluctuates. So an example would be sometimes we've done work on groundwater, for example, or if there's an element of a knowledge agenda that we're looking into, we would engage with the appropriate folks. Another example from the water perspective would be some of the expertise we needed to review the reports that were being created by Alberta with respect to regulation of oil sands. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you. I'll go to the Member from Yellowknife North.
Thank you, Mr. Chair. That's fine for now.
Thank you. Any further questions? I'm going to go to the Member from the Deh Cho.
